Understanding Reality
by Jirubee
Summary: Detective Ito was supposed to put criminals behind bars, not fall in love with them. InuYasha X Kagome. M for adult content and language.


Detective Ito spent his youth capturing murderers and the underbelly of society, half expecting to fall in love with a serial killer. Especially one that had been hiding under his nose the whole time, working as a secretary in his office.

**AN: OMG IT'S BEEN FOREVER. **

**There IS an update for Secrets and Summer By the Bay coming. The past month has been a really really rough time and I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Thank you for standing by me and being the best readers in the world. I also am starting a new account as soon as I finish my serials on this account.**

**I want a fresh start with stories that I've worked on for months off and on. I will still use this for my light hearted serials and one shots. I'll give you more information as it comes along.**

**Also, if anyone would like to see my artwork: Go to Google - Webstagram #jiruart and there's a bunch of InuYasha fanart on my account Jorogumo. **

**Love and thank you a thousand times; Jiru.**

**ALSO; This has been in the back of my mind for a while. I'm not exactly sure what possessed me to write it, but I hope you enjoy it. ;D**

Paper stacked its self in disorganized columns, dishelving the desk buried below it. Smoke curled around the room, funneling along the pillars shadows blotted out the projection on the wall. InuYasha was barely thirty, taking on far too many cases at once.

This was his romp on a Friday night; reading over files and pin-marks decorating his walls. His staff was tucked in for the evening, leaving him boxed in and weary eyed in the darkness of his miniscule office.

For a lead detective, he sure as hell was disappointed with the space he was given. It was smaller than the interrogation office his colleague, Kitagawa Miroku, worked in. He was such a smooth talker most people just let their truths slip and he was happy to have him work beneath him.

Taking a sip of his stale, probably hours old coffee, InuYasha scowled at the ashes in his cup and sighed. Working on the _Tomoe Gozen_ case was almost killing him. It had been two years and nothing held enough validity to show for it.

The one thing he knew, and everyone else knew, was that the murderer - the vicious murderer - was a woman. A far stretch for the imagination, he assumed. Most people thought he was crazy when he found nail polish chippings during a stand in autopsy, but who was to say a man just fancied himself a good Coral Pink lacquer before a kill?

InuYasha ran a hand through his dark hair, littered with graying tendrils from his stress. He glanced at the Hello Kitty clock, a decorative liberity he gave his secretary, and glowered at the late hour. Staying late wouldn't let him figure out anything he didn't already know, so he opted to jump in a grisly old taxi.

On his way home, he stared vacantly at the city streets, blurring out the dying neons. Part of him ached to be home, whereas the other wished to be prowling the streets for clues, or anything that might give him an answer.

As the taxi slowed and he was eaten by the cool of the night, he rushed up the pathway of stairs to his upstairs apartment. His heart pounded in his chest as he parted the door. He was hoping that _she_ would still be there.

_She_ had become his rock, his last shroud of sanity, and could very easily lose his job over her. Parting the door, he heard the faintest crackle of the television and smelled the lingering smoke from what was supposed to have been a romantic dinner, or so he assumed.

Loosening his tie, InuYasha shucked his suit jacket on the floor, something she hated, and meandered to the old blue sofa. There, curled in the frills of her strawberry apron, laid Kagome, sleeping with the remote stuck to her cheek.

The man smirked and moved a hand over her bare shoulder. If only catching a killer was as easy as sneaking up on her when she was sleeping, he thought direly. Kagome stirred beneath his touch and parted her eyes, trying so hard to open them.

A smile hit her lips as his hair brushed against her cheeks. After everything was said and done, she was going to tell him the truth. Tonight, she had planned on admitting everything. If she hadn't worked so hard pulling herself out of the pits of hell, she would have done it a long time ago.

"You cooked?" InuYasha grinned against her lips, placing a kiss upon her chapped mouth. The woman smiled weakly in response, trying to compose herself.

He would see the fear in her eyes, or the lackadaisical motions she chose. Kagome raised upon her elbows, brushing her mussed hair from her eyes. Her heart trembling in a nervous rythym. She chewed at her lip, not looking the man in the eye.

She'd talked to the mirror for weeks, trying so hard to say: _I'm __**Tomoe Gozen **__and I still love you. I hope you still love me even though I killed about twenty people in a two year span. They were bad people, but you probably don't see it that way. Can't you be happy that they were rapists and people who killed children? Children like my brother?_

InuYasha couldn't see past the facade she was holding, and left her solid warm expression for face value. He certainly had had enough worrying for the day and merely wanted to feel her limbs tangled with his.

She'd worked for him for a little over a year and was a fantastic addition to the department. She knew the ins and outs of laws, punishments, and sanctions. She probably could have been a lawyer if she had truly wanted to, but chose to be subserviant and grab him coffee, cigarettes, and whatever other absurd task he asked of her.

Kagome was just about as beautiful as a person could be, and it was no surprise that he fell for her the way he did. She cut through him with those peculiar eyes and filled him with so much self worth that he could barely remember what it was like before her.

As his hands pressed along her shoulders, cupping her neck with their heat, Kagome stared at the ceiling wishing that he hadn't loved her. He was going to throw her to the wolves. And the one wolf in particular, was going to make sure she was dragged into the middle of nowhere and killed the same way she killed.

Screwing her eyes shut, she felt his balmy breath climbing along her jawline. She wanted to push him away, but accepted his advances knowing she would never have the opportunity again. She relished this, finding a man that loved her, but it was cruel.

A gasp punctured the quiet in the room, making InuYasha make a soft satisfied noise against her throat as his hands wandered across her breast. How could she do this to him? What would he do? Shoot her, strangle her, throw her in jail in the largest publicly televised case in Nippon?

Her thin arms wrapped around him, clenching him tightly to her chest. "InuYasha?" She whined, quivering. The images of crying men flashed before her eyes and she began to cry. Kagome buried her face into his shoulder, begging to erase that part of her past.

Anyone linked with the deprave murder of her younger brother was killed and he was given just peace. She'd dismembered, pulled out teeth, nails, tortured them trying to make them feel what he had felt. How she had gotten away with it this long surprised her, and InuYasha falling in love with her was the best thing that had happened to her.

The advantage was a distraction to _her_. Things that were so noticeable were overlooked like dust beneath the couch. InuYasha pulled back slightly when he felt her tears soak through his shirt and sat upon his knees, worry etched across his face.

"What's wrong, Kagome?" He rasped, furrowing his thick brows.

Kagome looked away from him, pulling at the falling band of her apron. She stared vacantly at the carpet, willing herself to be brave. Her heart fell apart and made her stomach churn.

"Are you alright?" He cleared his throat, bringing a hand to carress her hunched back.

The woman swatted it away and began to sob violently, holding herself with her small arms. She wanted to run away, hide in a hole and never come out - which was probably what she was going to do. Being buried alive sounded better than being in the middle of this mess. He would lose his job for such carelessness.

Her actions weren't seen as retribution. All anyone saw was the murder of seemingly innocent people and the sickness of a person who couldn't contain their rage. No one knew what it had done to her, no one knew what their family had suffered... It was all black and white, no gray to been seen in between the smudged lines.

"I-I have to tell you something important." Kagome muttered in between the violent bursts of tears grarbling her voice. Her skin was so flush and hot she could barely feel the air conditioning kick on. The darkness was overwhelming her and she was devoured by the same darkness inside of her.

InuYasha frowned, wrapping his arms around her only for the woman to escape his grasp. She pressed herself to her feet and felt his hand try and pull her back.

"You need to sit the fuck down and tell me what happened to you." He barked, his anger slowly rising. Not so much at her, but the fact she would hide anything from him. She had told him everything and he accepted her for her flaws and vice versa.

He dealt with enough liars and criminals to know when she was lying to him and the things that he overlooked about her were easily seen. Standing up, InuYasha stared down at the crown of her head as she cupped her face.

"Spit it out." He demanded, feeling his exterior growing prickly and stony with each passing moment. "You have to tell me eventually, or I can always get Miroku to weasle it out of you."

Kagome shot him a devastated look and raised her gray, bloodshot eyes to his. "I-" She paused taking a sharp breath, digging her nails into her palms. Her eyes inspected his, and felt her knees begin to quake. He was so powerful and she was nothing. "I-I am Tomoe." She blurted, her blood cogealing and body buckling stiff.

Her eyes closed, refusing to see his flabbergasted and empty expression. She waited for his hand to strike her face and his voice to blurt out obscenities before he wrestled her to the ground. Instead, when she found the courage to part her eyes, she found him biting his lip.

Deep in thought, InuYasha swallowed and reached into his pocket for a Lucky. Kagome stood steadfast and unmoving, waiting for the thum of her heart to cease so she could hear. She wanted him to stop being stoic and say something;_ ANYTHING._

When he blew out that first puff of smoke, he lolled his head back, bristling his body against the arm of the sofa. "Do you think I'm really _that_ stupid, Kagome?" He asked, raising his brows darkly as her expression fell.

She wretched back a sob, trying to close her mouth. "Wh-what do you mean, InuYasha?" She breathed in between each sharp inhale.

The man smirked, shaking his head slightly. "Kagome, don't you think I figured that out a long time ago. I've been sticking around that fucking office, looking over files and other bullshit to cover up all the evidence pointing to you. I've protected you since the moment you walked in the door. I've almost got a plan worked out and all I ask of you is that you keep your mouth shut. I know why you did it." He said sharply, ignoring her fervored shaking.

"Besides, you aren't a bad person. I can't believe you had it in you to take care of half of the problem in Tokyo. No one else will see it that way, but a lot of us don't have clean hands and we overlook it, for some reason or another. We aren't saints. Shit, if it makes you feel better, I've killed a person before." InuYasha said, nudging for her to sit down on the couch with him.

Hesitantly, Kagome pressed her fingers on the cushion before she hunkered down, wrapping the afgan around her for security. InuYasha sank beside her, licking his lips as he let his cigarette burn out between his fingers.

"I figured that you would have had to with your job. I'm always scared for you." Kagome murmured, pressing her nose against the fabric, smelling the remnants of her mother's perfume on them. "I can't believe that you aren't taking me and throwing me under the bus for being scum. I-I don't know how to feel or what to say..." She heaved, every word as broken as the one before it.

InuYasha smiled weakly and laid his head upon the back of the couch. The low light from the television flickering over them softly. "You know that you don't have to ever worry about me. I fell in fucking love with you the moment I saw you and the more I got to know you, the more of a person I saw and that person isn't evil and isn't malicious. The only reason that you did that fucked up shit, no matter how fucked up it was, which it was, Kagome... Oh god..." He widened his eyes, noticing how preturbed she looked.

"_But_, it doesn't change the fact that no one did anything to spare someone you loved from something equally as horrific. Most people don't think like we do and they don't understand how connective the brain really is and how important it is to have all of those connections run smoothly. When one wire is loose, there goes the whole shebang." He coughed, brushing his stubbly chin across his fingers.

Kagome was blank as she relished the envelope around her. She could barely feel the pressure building in her stomach as she soothed the ache in her soul, her bones as she listened to his gruff voice quelling her nerves.

"Why aren't you going to turn me in? I still don't understand as hellbent on this case as you are that you wouldn't take the glory and leave me to the dogs." She whispered.

InuYasha placed his hand on her knee and looked away from her. "You're a terrible listener. I'm going to fucking marry you, regardless of what you've done. I'm not a by the book person, and you know that. How many things have I done, Kagome, to avoid that case? Have you not noticed any of it? All of the evidence against you is gone. I murdered the man that killed my wife when I was just starting out and made it look like an accident." He shrugged.. "We all do things that we aren't proud of, but _this _is something I'd never have with another person."

"Can I talk to you openly about it?" Kagome asked gingerly, laying her head on his chest. His steady breathing made her eyes feel heavy as she curled into him. "I'm so shocked by everything that just happened that I don't even want to be awake."

"You're surprised?" InuYasha snorted sarcastically, wrapping his arms around her as tightly as he could muster. "If this was a different time, you would have had no trouble getting away. You were careful, smart, and only left behind a trace or two of you. I hope that Sota can rest easily." He cooed, rubbing the back of her head. "And you can tell me everything. I may be a detective, and it may be my job to get the information, but I'd never let you suffer after the things you've been through."

Kagome nodded against him and closed her eyes, spellbound by his easiness. Whatever came tomorrow, she was certain it would be a struggle for both of them once it all sank in. The cleanliness of a person only rests within the confines of the mind. Truth and honor, and retribution can make a person do things that they would have never done.

And as they sank into sleep, dreams of a better life filtered the bleak reality in which they lived.


End file.
